Koffler.Digital and Trinity Square Video invite you to Digital Sites: Conversations on Building Space, Constructing Archives, a discursive program developed in conjunction with TSV’s ongoing V/Art Projects and Koffler.Digital’s Death To/Long Live: The Archive.

Nyla Innuksuk, Sajdeep Soomal and Fusun Uzun will discuss the emotional capacity of virtual realities, their ability to utilize archives for political impact, and the ethics surrounding virtual constructions. In considering the gamut from analogue video to VR, Digital Sites will investigate the various hierarchies fixed in archival practices that influence and obstruct lived accounts and speculative narratives.

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Nyla Innuksuk is a filmmaker, media artist and a co-owner in Pinnguaq Productions, a company rooted in the creation of unique cultural experiences. Pinnguaq operates in Ontario, Nunavut and British Columbia, with a cutting edge mandate to create interactive experiences that push both the limits of technology and cultural expression. Nyla has produced both documentary and narrative films, with her short Kajutaijuq (2014) premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and later selected to be a part of the TIFF Top 10 Festival. She won the TIFF Pitch This! Prize in 2016, and has previously worked with the National Film Board of Canada as a director of documentary films and interactive projects. In addition to film, she is an early adopter of Virtual Reality content creation, working with artists such as Philip Glass, The Strumbellas, A Tribe Called Red and Polaris Prize Winner Tanya Tagaq.

Sajdeep Soomal is a researcher, archivist and emerging curator based in Toronto, ON who was initially hired to complete a three-year oral history project about the Toronto-based South Asian arts festival Desh Pardesh (1988-2001) with the launch of a digital archive and podcast series. As Communications Coordinator, Sajdeep has designed a new visual brand and website for the organization and revitalized its social media presence. Prior to working at SAVAC, Sajdeep was a research assistant at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where they assisted with exhibition planning and conducted collections research.

Design, documentary filmmaking, and research combine to describe Fusun Uzun’s professional background. Her focus is on creating new forms of storytelling within emerging platforms and hybrid solutions that can expand our perception of new possibilities. As an MFA graduate from the Digital Futures program of OCAD University, she created an immersive, verbatim 360° documentary about the Canadian immigration detention system. The artwork employs the practice of Verbatim Theatre and the techniques and technologies of 360° Cinema to present the events surrounding the death in 2013 of migrant Lucia Vega Jimenez while in detention with the Canada Border Services Agency.